A required minimum distribution is an account-specific annual obligation. It is not proof that a withdrawal occurred, a calculation of its final taxable amount or a forecast of future account values. Review those layers separately.

Start with the owner rule and the correct year

Begin with the owner’s birth year and the distribution year. This calculator’s current obligation is for 2026, so an entered balance normally describes December 31, 2025. An outstanding rollover absent from every account at that date may require a separate adjustment. Adding a regular contribution made later is not the same adjustment. Keep enough records to distinguish these facts before relying on a total.

Owner Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts have no lifetime RMD. Traditional IRAs do not receive a still-employed exemption. An eligible current-employer plan can have a later beginning date, but employment alone does not establish plan permission or the ownership exception. Enter a retirement year when that fact determines the first required year. Inherited accounts follow beneficiary rules and belong in the separate inherited IRA calculator.

For the 1959 cohort, the projection retains the proposed age 73 interpretation and identifies its status. Older historical beginning dates are not reconstructed from an incomplete birth-date fact. A valid current-year amount remains distinct from any unresolved historical or future detail.

Use the published factor and the permitted account pool

The annual minimum divides the reviewed adjusted prior-year balance by the applicable IRS distribution factor. Table III applies to unmarried owners and most married owners. Table II applies when the spouse is the account’s sole beneficiary and is strictly more than 10 years younger. A gap of exactly 10 years does not qualify. Each account can therefore have its own table selection, even when the owner is the same person.

Calculate the account minimums separately before applying an aggregation rule. Eligible traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRA minimums can generally be satisfied from one or more eligible IRAs belonging to that owner. Owned 403(b) contracts form a separate group. A 401(k) or other separately satisfied employer plan cannot use a different plan’s excess payment or an IRA payment as its own credit.

The worksheet applies pooled payments in row order to make the remaining amounts reviewable. This is an illustration of permitted coverage, not an instruction to withdraw from a particular account. Generic row labels are enough; account numbers and institution names are unnecessary.

Keep actual cash, QCD and taxable income distinct

An RMD is the minimum required amount, while an actual distribution is money already withdrawn. Enter the gross actual amount and include any verified qualified charitable distribution within it. Do not add the charity transfer a second time. The model rejects a QCD above that actual amount and does not silently reduce a larger verified QCD merely because the annual minimum is smaller.

For 2026, the owner-wide QCD exclusion limit is $111,000. Age at the payment date, eligible account and charity, direct transfer, acknowledgment, otherwise-taxable income and the adjustment for deductible contributions after age 70½ all matter. An ongoing SEP or SIMPLE IRA is not eligible for this treatment. The calculator accepts reviewed eligibility facts; it does not establish them for you.

Required distributions and taxable distributions are different questions. Enter an independently reviewed taxable component when basis or other rules affect it, or retain the explicit illustrative assumption that non-QCD distributions are taxable. The flat modeled tax rate does not calculate a return. Charity transfers reduce personal spendable cash as well as potentially reducing taxable income.

Separate first-year timing from a new year’s minimum

An eligible first distribution year can have an April 1 deadline in the following calendar year. The following year also has its own minimum, generally due December 31. These are distinct obligations. Paying the first amount later does not replace the second amount or permit the calculator to reuse the original balance as if it were a newly observed year-end value.

Actual payments already taken reduce the unpaid first-year amount. Planned payments made during the first year also reduce the amount that must be carried before they count as additional payments above the minimum. The projector shows the prior-year carry separately from the new year’s requirement, together with each deadline. A reviewed new December 31 balance can be entered independently; otherwise that balance and the next minimum remain conditional projections.

Deferral can change the calendar year in which income is received, but a constant-rate comparison cannot establish which choice is better for a household. Other income, deductions, basis, Medicare premiums and future law can alter the result. Excess payments in one year do not prepay a later year’s minimum.

Read future charts as assumptions, not observed results

The withdrawal chart and balance chart use separate aligned calendar-year panels. The current legal obligation is marked independently of the modeled payment timing. Select a year to inspect its opening balance, updated factor, planned payments and deadlines. Future actual withdrawals have not been observed; a planned cash flow is not relabeled as an actual transaction. The annual table and CSV retain this distinction.

Future balances assume a constant entered return and year-end payments. A negative return can leave a required payment unfunded; it does not forgive the legal obligation. An unknown tax rate leaves tax unavailable while the known current minimum and supported balance calculation remain usable. Future taxable amounts are illustrative assumptions rather than a projected Form 8606 basis ledger or a certification of Roth or QCD treatment.

Medicare income generally affects a premium year two years later. The published 2026 CMS table is a reference, not the actual future schedule. Keep other income and modeled distributions from being counted twice, review the separate-return limitation, and use a full Medicare analysis when the reference cannot represent the household.